Thursday, October 31, 2013

Nothing in the real world suggests
that unending economic growth is possible.

Barf
Bag Please: NSA
director General Alexander says that “NSA protects America's
privacy and civil liberties,” and only listens 24/7 to our every
whisper in order to keep foreign terrorists from diminishing those
rights. In
other words, NSA invades our privacy to make sure no one else does. Positively
Negative: US consumer
confidence fell sharply in October, we were less optimistic about the
current situation, and are decidedly gloomier about the future.
Yeah, recovery.

Unsinkable: One of Obamacare's greatest survival factors is that it will
deliver a lot of profit to insurance companies and keep most
American's health insurance costs to 8% or less of their income.
Sure, both of these will drive up the deficit, but two out of three
ain't bad. Fear
And Loathing: American
conservatives' dislike for poor people – witness their current
drive to dismantle the food stamp program, the refusal of 26
Republican governors to accept the no-cost expansion of Medicaid
coverage under Obamacare, and their unthinking rejection of Obamacare
in total – is mainly based on fear. Some small part of their
abhorrence of the poor may stem from sophomoric idealization of 'free
markets' and the idea that those who fail to succeed must be
defective, even more of it is the desire to elevate oneself over
others, but a great deal of it is simple racism.

Push/Shove:
No matter how much the Fed would like inflation to be higher,
without putting money in the hands of consumers – a direct stimulus
- it cannot succeed. Flooding the world with money does them little
good if the money is not used (borrowed) by companies to expand their
output, and a company does not make more widgets if it does not see
customers for those widgets. As long as the customer doesn't have
the money (or sufficient credit) to buy the widget, the cash just
piles up in asset heaps, uselessly. Baby
Steps: the cops now have
GPS bullets that can be fired into a target – say a car – and let
the cops tract the location of the target at their leisure. It may
cut down on dangerous high-speed chases. It also may be the
precursor of smaller versions with other
uses.

Prior
Restraint: Britain's press
is going to court in a bid to stop the imposition of new rules
developed after the country's phone hacking scandal. Essentially the
establishment wants to impose gag orders on the press to prevent
their ratting out their betters. Luckily we in the US still have
the First Amendment. Still.

Caught
In The Middle:Obamacare
will not solve the most severe problem facing the use healthcare
consumer – the fact that both the doctors and the insurance
companies want to make a profit. This leads the doctor to
over-prescribe and the insurance company to fight tooth and nail to
keep the doctors from prescribing at all. Insurance companies demand
massive amounts of paperwork out of rational fear of fraud – with
drives up administrative costs. Doctors perform for-profit
procedures that guarantee more explanatory paperwork. What is best
for the patient is seldom the primary concern of any of the clerks
involved in the ensuing paper wars.

He
Said She Said: NSA
documents show that NSA has tapped into communications links from
Yahoo and Google data centers around the world. But NSA director
General Alexander claims
this is not true, that the NSA hasn't infiltrated their servers.
“Infiltrate” would suggest it was done in secret. It wasn't.
Previous reporting suggests that NSA paid them for the access.

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Next
Up: A
US drone has killed two “suspected Al Shabaab militants” ( or a
couple of guys in the wrong place at the wrong time ) in Somalia, as
the empire attempts to get a war going there as a backup in case the
need for random deaths in Pakistan and Yemen tapers off.

Sources
& Methods:
Self-confessed serial liars General Keith Alexander, director of
NSA, and James Clapper, Jr., the director of national intelligence,
today claimed that they had not collected tens of millions of phone
calls by French and Spanish citizens. They then went into detail
about how they happened to come by these phone calls - a
gift from admirers, apparently - explaining that their critics
didn't understand ... balderdash and bathwater. The
Witch Is Dead:
US wholesale prices dropped in September as food costs retreated, an
indication inflation remains tame. Try as it will, the Fed seems
incapable of pushing inflation up to its 2% target – much less
cause the dreaded runaway inflation so beloved of the GOP.

Victory:
The Congress has managed to cut nearly a million undeserving,
slothful veterans from the food stamp rolls, effective Friday. That
leaves about 46 million Americans on the dole, as the number
receiving food stamps continues to increase, even as employment
slowly recovers – another sign that millions of working Americans
don't make enough to feed their families. 76% percent of SNAP
households included a child, an elderly person, or a disabled person.
These vulnerable households receive 83 percent of all SNAP benefits.
Kicking those veterans off will really save money.

Retailing
Retail Sales:
Retail sales, less cars and gasoline, climbed just 0.4% in
September. Auto sales fell 5.1% m/m. Make up a story...

Asked
& Answers:
How Does the Global War on Terror Ever End? (a) It won't because it
creates more of 'the enemy' every day. (b) It cannot, because
terrorism is a process, not a person, place or thing. (c) It is not
intended to end, we need something to focus our daily two minutes of
hate on. Austerity:
No matter how emotionally satisfying it might be, cutting government
spending while the economy is floundering is the wrong thing to do.
It's basic: while belt tightening during hard times is a Good Idea
for individuals, it is a Terrible Idea for the economy. If everyone
stops demanding, there will be no demand, thus no production. If,
however, the government steps in and gives individuals some money to
spend, presto, changeo: demand. Sure it may create a little
inflation – so you get to pay back your house mortgage with cheaper
dollars. Good for you,
bad for Daddy Warbucks. Which explains why those guys keep
pushing austerity, not stimulus.

Win
Some, Lose Some:
Measures to prevent and treat head trauma have cut the incidence of
“brain death” by half in the last decade. Which is good. A side
effect, however, is a matching loss of transplant organs.

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

A number of American politicians believe Atlas Shrugged is
real, and that they're John Galt.

First
Things: General Keith
Alexander, sworn to uphold the Constitution as a military officer and
head of the National Security Agency which intercepts all of our
electronic communications in order too protect and defend us and the
Constitution, says that we must find a way to stop reporters from
reporting leaks in the press. Slip
Sliding: Pending home sales (i.e. contracts to buy an
existing home) fell 5.6% in September, m/m, the first time
in 29 months that pending sales haven't increased y/y and is the
biggest
drop in 40 months,

Side
Note: The Fed's Flow of Funds report shows that over $1.3
trillion in mortgage debt has been vaporized, mostly through
foreclosures and short sales, by the collapse of the housing bubble.
That makes a fair hole in the economy.

Entrails:
NYSE margin debt has reached record highs. Some see this as a
bearish signal that unwarranted exuberance has set in, others see it
as a bullis vote of confidence in future gains. You pays
borrow your money and takes your choice.

Safety
First: Since the slaughter of 20 children at Newton
elementary, over 28,000 more Americans have died from guns – 90 a
day. Proud, ain't we, of our freedoms?

Joke's
On Us:
The only way to “rein in” NSA's unconstitutional arrogance is to
defund the Beast. Too bad that – like Hoover in the days of old –
the NSA holds markers on most of those who theoretically supervise
it. Strange
Bedfellows: Israel and the Saudis have stumbled into an
alliance opposing the current US-Iran rapprochement, sharing
religious, political and economic animus; the enemy of my enemy...

Reminder:
Nearly 45,000 Americans will die this year because they do not have
health insurance and cannot afford medical care. The marketplace is
not a solution for those who have no money to enter the market.

Running
Totals: Since April, over 5,000 Iraqis have died in what is
in essence a religious war between Sunni and Shia.

Paying
The Price: In 2016 alone—the 24 states embracing Obamacare
and expanding their Medicaid programs will receive $30.3 billion in
additional federal dollars, while those not expanding will forego
$35.0 billion they could have had to spend on their citizens.

Keeping
Score:
"The Republicans are winning, and have been for
the past three years, if not the past thirty. They’re just too
blinkered by fantasies of total victory to see it."

Sophomoric
Enlightenment: In an article asking "Are Rising Energy
Costs Responsible for Widespread Economic Recession?" the author
breathlessly concludes it's "something no one would have thought
of—high oil prices that take a slice out of the economy, without
anything to show in return." Or 'the more it costs to get the
oil, the less you make burning it.' Now that wasn't hard, was it?

If
You Have To Ask: The
WSJ wants to know "Whose side is your broker on?" Ask
yourself this: what does your broker really do for a living, from
whence does his income come? At the end of the day he takes money
from you. How he maximizes that income is the real story.

Monday, October 28, 2013

Obamacare
Basics:
The Affordable Care Act is not about health care nor even about
health insurance. That is part of the deception. The ACA was
designed to prevent universal single-payer healthcare in the US,
permanently. Secondarily it was intended – through the individual
mandate – to
increase insurance profits.
And to assure the flow of those profits, it also acts as a direct
transfer of tax revenues to insurance corporation investors thorough
premium subsidies. This is the price we pay for insisting on
keeping insurance companies in the mix, when they serve little useful
purpose. And the Republicans are against
this?

Austerity
Now! The UK's economy grew by 0.8% in the latest quarter,
the fastest it has grown in 3 years of grinding austerity. Ah, the
smell of napalm in the morning.

Mission
Creep: NSA justifies its spying on everyone, everywhere, all
the time as necessary to defend the US from terrorist attacks. So,
is Angeleka Merkel a terrorist? Or the entire administrative
structure of the EU? Or Brazil's Petrobas? Have terrorists
infiltrated international
trade conferences? For years the NSA has swept up billions of
phone calls, emails and private conversations of the leaders of our
political allies and the corporate officers of our leading
competitors – all in the name of 9/11 and Apple Pie. And business
interests.

Neverland:
In one of the more asinine 'thought' pieces on oil production and
pricing, we are urged to ponder what will happen if oil falls to $70.
Right. If the economy tanks to the point oil that goes to those
levels we'll have a lot more to worry about than the price of oil.

Tree,
Poison Fruit Of? The Feds are now admitting they are using
information taken from warrantless wiretaps to develop criminal
prosecutions. Neat, use “national security” to troll the
airwaves for evidence that they could not get a valid warrant for and
about which they would have no idea except for the warrantless
'security' snooping.
Wish
Listed: Most
Americans who contribute to 401(k)s are running up debts faster than
piling up retirement funds -
increasing their mortgages, credit card balances and installment
loans far more than they are able to put away for their retirement.
But the fig-leaf of their 401(k)s makes them feel good, so let them
be. They'll suffer soon enough. Quiz:
In which European country were there more bikes sold last year than
new cars? All of them except Belgium
and Luxembourg. Fool's
Errand: Raising the eligibility age for Medicare will at best not save
any money and is most likely to cost the
government money. The 65-year old 'youngsters' are far cheaper to
care for than older recipients. And most 65-year olds will qualify
for Medicaid if denied Medicare. And given Obamacare, the government
would undoubtedly be out more money subsidizing private health
insurance than putting the same folks on Medicare – which is a
remarkably cost-efficient program. The CBO estimates the budget
savings
from raising the Medicare age to 67 is $2 billion a year – far less
than can be made by fining JPMorgan for its transgressions. The
usual suspects will keep pushing for the same thing, dismiss the
evidence and keep marching to Ayn Rand's drum.

The
Definition of 'Is': The US is defending its prerogative of
murdering anyone, anywhere, at any time via drone strike as being
“necessary and just'. Which would certainly depend on the
definitions of those words.

Something
Is Very Wrong: “The US
economy has left large swaths of people behind. History shows that
such periods are ripe for demagogues, and here again, deep pockets
buy not only the policy set that protects them, but the “think
tanks,” research results, and media presence that foments the
polarization that insulates them further.”

Point
Of Order: The US deficit is not “spiraling out of
control”. If anything, the deficit level is being reduced too
quickly and this is slowing our recovery. The deficit has declined
steadily since 2009. So we are entering another season of straw men
and specious scare tactics as the 1% and their minions sally forth
once again to gut Social Security. In the upcoming budget talks,
failure is an option; the best one.

Asked
& Answered: “Can Republicans Investigate Obamacare
Without Making Fools of Themselves?” What would make Obamacare
different?

Saturday, October 26, 2013

The
Daisy Test:
NSA now explains its scooping up every electronic bit about each
of us as the only way it can figure out if we've been good or bad.
They look at everything (and they mean everything)
and decide if overall you belong in the 'patriot' or 'terrorist'
pile. Essentially, we're all guilty until they think maybe we're
not.
He loves the country, he loves it not...

Trees:
Four months after protesters in Istanbul demonstrated against the
conservative religious government under the pretext of saving the
trees in a large park and were rewarded with riot police with water
cannon and plastic bullets, protesters in Ankara are demonstrating to
protect some 3,000 trees from government destruction and will in turn
be met with water cannon and plastic bullets. It's not really about
the trees.

Rhetorical
Flourishes: According to
Paul Ryan the GOP will use the upcoming budget discussions as an
opportunity to make “common-sense structural long-term reforms of
the country’s entitlement programs and tax code”. Translation:
In return for agreeing to abandon the mindless across-the-board
budget cuts of the sequestration, Ryan & Co will
insist on cutting Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid and some
farm programs while cutting taxes an equal amount. Because (cue
boogeymen) the debt, the debt, the debt...

Tale
Of Two Projects: The F-35
fighter jet (which the military does not want) is seven years late
and $233 billion over budget. The Republicans love it. The
interface to the ACA is going to be about two months late and about
$300 million over budget. The Republicans are outraged. The main
difference is that the F-35 project leads to all sorts of profits for
those who contribute to politicians, while the ACA will benefit the
poor.

Geography
Test:
Thirteen of the seventeen states where a majority of public school
students are poor (ie over half qualify for free or reduced school
meals) are (a) in the South, (b) Republican controlled. The correct
answer is, of course, yes. Quoted:“The Federal government
and its various agencies have set aside the Bill of Rights as a dead
letter, substituted for them a bizarre set of interpretations of law,
and either avoid having the courts adjudicate their fascist fantasies
or managed to have appointed to the bench unethical or authoritarian
judges that will uphold virtually anything they do.”

The
End Of Times:
For over three years, serious-looking men in expensive suits in
Washington have repeatedly warned that a terrible debt crisis was
underway and would crush the economy while driving inflation through
the roof. And repeatedly this has not happened. They have been
wrong every time. And they are wrong this time, too.

No
Longer A Threat:
For several years medical researchers have been warning that our
antibiotic weaponry was becoming compromised and that we were in
danger of losing our fight with various infections. So relax. We
are no longer facing that danger. The microbes have won and we have
reached "the end of antibiotics, period."

Friday, October 25, 2013

Things
That Go Bump: Some would
have you see the world through oil-smeared lenses, claiming that
China's oil imports edging a tad higher than US imports was why Saudi
Arabia is spurning the US. Except US imports come from neither the
Saudis nor the Middle East. And while Chinese imports will poach oil
from the market, it is not a diplomatic crisis. Nice story, just not
true. The
Headline: “Real Economic
Growth Killer? Government Spending Cuts...”

About
Desperation: The
Mediterranean has become “an open cemetery for migrants” trying
to reach European shores, but the flow of political and economic
refugees from Africa - and the drowning - will only increase as
global warming worsens. Progress:
Since 1996, the number of US families living in deep poverty has
gone up 130%.

To
What End? The National
Security Agency recorded information about more than 124 billion
phone calls during a 30-day period earlier this year, including
around 3 billion calls from U.S. Another 97 billion bits of
information were pulled by the NSA from global computer networks.

Cautionary
Tale: “Exactly the same
bozos who missed the last bubble deny there is one now." Societe
Generale's Albert Edwards.

Rose
Is Rose: The final term
papers based on the long-running EU social experiment with austerity
are coming in and unanimously agree that the contractionary policy
pursued by the EU/ECB/IMF were in fact contractionary. Cuts in
government spending, it turns out, are treated by the economy as
spending cuts. Golly gee. A-plus all around. Slip
Sliding Away: The Sultan
Of Brunei has imposed Sharia law in Brunei, but only on Muslims.
Okay, they asked for it I guess. Excess!
Crude oil – under the banner of WTI – has “undergone a
substantial correction” in the last few days. That is, the price
dropped. It's not a “correction” when the price goes up. But
why? Well, Iran seems to be getting
ready to enter the market as it 'friends' the US. Yesterday's
employment report points to weak economic growth, and less growth
equals less need to pollute the atmosphere. And the weekly US supply
report showed crude supplies up by 5.2 million barrels. Take your
pick. American
Dream:
In September, nationwide, all-cash purchases made up 49% of all
residential sales. These purchases by “institutional investors”
are now at all time highs, with all-cash accounting for half of all
transactions. Your piggy bank that full?

Scratch
& Sniff:
There are areas in the United States where life expectancy has fallen
to levels found in undeveloped countries. People in much of Europe
(80+) outlive Americans (76 years) and have for years, but now
places like Guatemala come out ahead of areas in West Virginia (63.9
for males) and Tunica County, Mississippi (66.7 for males), where
folks die 18 years before the
richer, better educated people in Fairfax County, VA. Money counts.

“Lovin'
It” McDonald's HR
office – McResource, of course – has an employee helpline that
tells the workers
how to apply for food stamps. And
points out that they can use them at McDonalds.
More
than half of fast food workers
have to rely on public assistance programs since their wages aren't
enough to support them. Bigger
Fools Wanted: Blackstone
is going to sell bonds backed by the income from lease payments on
rental houses. You know, the rent
paid by people who couldn't keep up with their mortgage payments. More
Recovery: In October US
manufacturing output fell to levels last seen in 2009 – when The
RecoveryTM
was getting stated. The Parting Shot:

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Because
We Can: Germany wants an "immediate and comprehensive
explanation’ of US spying on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile
phone. As an East German, she understands that point of view.

Recovery
4.07:The dollar is at
two-year lows against the euro after weak US jobs data reinforced
expectations the Fed will keep its easy-money policy intact well into
2014. The
FHFA's August house price index rose only 0.3% m/m, way below
expectations. Caterpillar's
3Q results sucked, with earnings missing projections by 13%, a
17% decline y/y, with 75% of the drop coming from the manufacture of
mining and extraction equipment. They now expect to miss their full
year profit target by at least 15%.

Without
Comment: Alan Greenspan (the man who couldn't see the
housing bubble) says stocks are "relatively low" and
heading upward. I certainly hope he goes all-in.

Another
Point Of View: Reality in the Middle East in no way
resembles the fairyland found in US MSM. The essential fight is
between Shia and Sunni, and in real terms that means a struggle for
dominance between Saudi Arabia on one side and Dubai and the UAE on
the other. Saudi Arabia supports the Syrian rebels and
is angry the US does not act more forcibly (and is fast
approaching a serious diplomatic rift over this and the US softening
towards Iran). Dubai is financing Assad in Syria along with the
Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and elsewhere while the Saudis much
prefer the military dictatorship. And on it goes. The US sometimes
thinks it is about oil, but it is not. It is about dreams of empire,
and even the Turks are caught up in it.

On
The Western Front: Following up on his earlier cautionary
tales about the European banking system, ECB head Draghi says – in
an attempt to keep a little credibility -"banks do need
to fail". Either Spanish banks and Greek banks would serve as
object lessons.

Deep
In The Heart Of:
Texas' new voter ID law could easily disenfranchise nearly half of
the state's female voters, which is the Republican's intent in light
of the Wendy revolution. But
the Cupboard Was Dry... US Energy independence sounds good
Too bad it's not going to happen. Here's a current factoid: The EIA
reports that the latest 4-week average for US production of oil
(crude + condensate; which
is the definition of oil) was 7.6 million barrels a day, while
refinery runs used 15.8 million barrels daily. The 8.2 million
barrel a day difference is made up of imports. Shale oil is not the
salvation: in order for shale to simply maintain the current level
of crude oil production – half our needs – the country woud
require the equivalent of 10 new Bakken plays over the next ten
years. And there are not 10 more to be had. Data for natural gas is
even weaker. Half-a-glass is only full in very dim light.

Sad
But True: The Senate Intelligence Committee and a lead CIA
lawyer have acknowledged that the torture undertaken by the Agency
was unnecessary, but Bush and Cheney thought it was good fun.

Correction:
About all those drones on the federal payroll, those bloodsuckers
who keep the National Parks open and the CDC running... turns out
that Federal employment is at a 47 year low. Don't tell Rand Paul,
it'd ruin his day. On second thought, tell him.

Starting
Over: A few hapless nations are debating whether to create
two giant Antarctic ocean sanctuaries. Why don't we the people,
through the UN, designate the whole world a sanctuary and then, item
by item, depredation by depredation, issue permits specifying the
amount of rape and despoilation permitted within tightly specified
areas and with specifically described tools and processes before any
exploitation of our children's children's inheritance is permitted
ever again.

Porn
O'Graph: The longer you don't have a job, the longer you
don't have a job.

Chain,
Chain, Chain:
Despite the debt/deficit drama in Washington, despite the weak to
nonexistent recovery, despite another year of falling wages in real
terms, we Americans are getting set to once more throw ourselves (and
a great deal of our future) away on the annual holiday shopping
orgies.

Prior
Experience A Plus:
Weak kneed liberals don't understand that Obama nominated Jeh C.
Johnson to be the next Secretary of Homeland Security because he
spent years justifying the excesses of the US war on humanity, not
despite it. Better
Believe It:
Pope Francis has warned that there is little of Jesus in ideological
religion, that it is faith and love and meekness and acceptance that
echo Jesus.

Mousetraps: As part
of the famed recoveryTM
- now in its fourth year – cheerleaders at the Commerce Department
announce that August construction spending was up 0.6%
over July and 7.1% y/y. In smaller print they noted that private
residential spending was 50% below the 2006 level. Some economist
agree with Dean Baker that the
housing bubble put an
8% hole in US GDP and so far nothing has been inflated enough to fill
that hole; thus weak housing, weak jobs market, weak economy. Read
the fine print.

It's
Done With Mirrors:
Alan Greenspan admits his surprise on discovering that an old
treasure map he found in an adolescent's novel wasn't a useful guide to reality.
He now seems to claim he's a hero for pretending to be one for so
long.

This
Way To The Egress:
WaPo assures us that while we are on the road to hell – or at
least a questionably survivable 8ºto 10º rise in global temperature
– we'll make lots and lots of profit from burning up shale gas and
poisoning the water supply.

Asked
and Answered:
Why are housing inventories low? Why wouldn't they be? See any
customers with new jobs or pay raises, ready to move up? See any
customers who've been able to unload their old place for enough to
make a down payment? See any customers who can afford to buy a
house until the 12th of Never when the college loan is paid off?
Jeesh.

Truth
Or Consequences:
While the US Senate is trying to hide a 6,000 page report on the
ways the CIA went about its renditions and torture, Amnesty
International has
asked the US to explain why its continuing drone campaigns are
not illegal and where its assumed right to kill anyone, anywhere,
anytime originates in the rule of law. The Parting Shot:

Friday, October 18, 2013

SAR is out of intensive care and in the
recovery room. No, it wasn't the drama in Washington – although
that's enough to cripple anyone – but some internal remodeling the
doctors' insisted on. We'll be back in a few days.

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Not
a Kumbaya Moment:
The compromise (sic) is not the end of the drama. It's just the end
of the second act. The Republican thugs get another bite of the apple
come January, and this next
time they'll reach even more boldly into the social safety net
under the guise of “keeping the government open.” It is
important to note that the prescribed budget talks are characterized
as “fiscal
reforms” by which is meant cutting everything that doesn't
support war or Wall Street. So, call this one a draw and let's have a
rematch early next year. Just like last year. What’s
next? One-week continuing resolution? Hourly budget
negotiations? Where's
Waldo?
Glenn Greenwald – Snowden's primary mouthpiece – has left the
Guardian
for a new media venture. In parting he said that “There are
a lot more stories in the NSA archives, ” and that “the most
shocking and significant stories are the ones we are still working
on, and have yet to publish.”

Revised
Script:
Imagine that a handful of Democrats decided that something had to be
done about the repeated slaughter of children by assault weapons and
threatened to force the country into default unless a total ban on
assault weapons was enacted. How would that play in Tea Party land?

Price
Of Admission:
Since the GOP takeover of the House in 2010, the cuts they have
forced in government spending (in the name of promoting growth) have
shaved nearly 3% off GDP. That missing 3% growth would have led to
the unemployment rate falling below 6%. It's called leadership,
because the rich are doing just fine.

Let's
Do The Twist:
The administration has told the Supreme Court that there are no
constitutional issues involved in the NSAs eavesdropping 24/7 on
every form of electronic communication. And even if there were, they
say, it would not fall within the purview of the Supreme Court
because the snooping is not a sufficiently “drastic and
extraordinary” matter to rate such attention. And lastly, the
administration claimed that the Supremes do not have any authority
over secret intelligence affairs. Still
Crazy After All These Years:
Sarah Palin believes President Obama should be impeached if he
raises the debt ceiling without the backing of Congress and should be
impeached if he lets the nation default on its debts. Somebody
should tell Sarah about the division of powers and who makes the
laws. More
Of The Same:
The Supremes have taken a case that challenges the President's
ability to make recess appointments. If the Court rules against the
administration, this and future presidents facing a
filibuster-vulnerable Senate will be unable to make appointments to
agencies that the opposition does not like. This could effectively
render things like the NLRB and SEC comatose. Just what the Roberts
Court needed, another chance to stomp on democracy.

Hero
In His Own Mind:
Ted Cruz, one of the primary causes of the shutdown and debt limit
crisis, having lost, now wants to be praised for not blocking a deal
that is out of his reach to block. In
Their Shoes:
The tea party supporters (unlike the folks they elect) are many
things, but insincere is not one of them. They grew up internalizing
Ronnie's dictum that the government is too large, is the problem,
that welfare cheats are sucking the life from the country, that taxes
are too high and the debt crushing the life out of small businesses.
None of these are true, of course, but that's the world the way they
see it. And they are afraid and angry, and a lot of very cynical,
self-serving politicians take advantage of them.

Qualifications:
Trey Gowdy (Retard-SC) doesn't understand that the National Park
Service closed down parks and memorials because he and his
co-conspirators shut down the government. The Parting Shot:

Medical stuff has kept me
from wandering my woods of late, so I'm using some shots from my
recent vacation...

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

If you can't get a good
answer, maybe you are asking the wrong question.

Home
Stretch:
Before Boehner, who had called the bi-partisan Senate bill “a
hand grenade” and his merry men even had a chance to explain
themselves, the White House pre-empted them by calling it “a
partisan attempt to appease a small group of Tea Party Republicans.”
Which
it was. At this point the choice for both sides is"unconditional
surrender or default."
Unconditional surrender is a
non-starter, leaving...

Translation:
Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta says that populism is a rising
threat to Europe. 'Populism'
here means 'fascism', as in Greece's Golden Dawn and the
resurgent Front National
in France. Cruz
Control:
Here’s a cheerful thought: Ted Cruz, who basically forced the
shutdown and whose own private polls have convinced him that it has
been a glorious success, could probably force a default and cause
global economic calamity all by his lonesome. And well may.

Here
Come da Judge:
“EU finance ministers prepared Tuesday to take a key step towards
a new bank regulatory framework with final clearance of a single
supervisor regime for the eurozone.”

Goal
Posts:
For many Republican hard-liners, default is not a problem but rather
the goal they've been working toward for several years. Some, not
content with simple default, want to repudiate the debt. Their
ultimate goal is a balanced budget enforced by a prohibition against
borrowing, as though this were a good idea. The current Congress is
one of the best possible arguments against democracy rooted in the
people.

Swords
Into Profits:
The Obama administration is loosening the export controls on the
Lords of War, increasing the flow of American arms and equipment to
the world's conflicts while increasing the flow of dollars to the
arms industry. The Commerce Department will insure that human rights
are not trammeled in the process.

Bait
& Switch:
The Republicans have suddenly switched from claiming shutting down
the government and running the default gauntlet was necessary because
of the evils of Obamacare to now claiming it is all about spending,
all about 'living within our means', all about curtailing
entitlements (without actually saying the words “Social Security
and Medicare”). In the next few days, every time you hear the
impass attributed to 'spending', remind yourself that the speaker is
parroting Republican talking points and not accurately reporting the
news. Big
Gulp:
The Fort Meade raiders are swooping into your e-mail address book and
your 'friends' lists at the rate of 250 million such lists a year.
Those in a 'person of interest's' address book will henceforth be
called 'co-conspirators'. The NSA defended its surveillance
activities as legal and respectful of privacy rights.

It's
Been Here All Along:
Everyone's asking 'will the US default?' But it already has... If
'default' is defined as failing to live up to a promise to pay, then
the sequester was a default and the furloughs of the government
shutdown are a default. But obviously some promises are more
important than others and the
promise to help the poor feed their children or that government
workers be able to buy groceries and gas up the car are certainly
second to the obligation to pay interest to the bond-holding
overlords of Wall Street. There will not be riots in the street come
default day. But “the full faith and trust” of the United States
will not be nearly so full nor so trusted for a long time thereafter,
and we'll pay for that in higher interest rates on Treasury bills.
The default has already started, and is already causing real harm.
The only question is how much worse it’s going to get.

Lying
As An Art Form:
Fox and its friends on the Republican Right now claim that Obama is
responsible for the government shutdown and the debt limit crisis.
This is a lie, but no member of MSM will dare call them on it. Which
is where the problem really is – in the refusal of the media to
point out that the Republicans and their mouthpiece platforms lie.
All day, every day. “Conservatives stopped bothering to care if
people believe their lies years ago. They know they’re lying. We
know they’re lying. It stopped mattering some time ago.”

Smoke/Fire:
China’s state press is calling for ‘Building a de-Americanized
World’
while some European observers think that the dollar's supremacy
is declining, and with it, American power.

The
Blueprints:
At this point there seems no way the legal logistics could be met to
avoid the Treasury exhausting its borrowing authority come Thursday
and running out of cash to pay the bills with a few days later and
certainly before November 1st.
Treasury rejects the idea of prioritizing payments, which would be
selective default, but default none the less. Financial markets so
far are whistling past the graveyard, pretending there is nothing,
nothing, nothing wrong. Yet the impact will likely be seen first in
the stock market. The full extent of the financial trauma will take
time to materialize – hopefully longer than it will take the
Congress to get a minyan.

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Flim
Flam Forever:
The overnight talk is of a compromise that will put off doing
anything about a budget until January (remember how well that worked
out last January) and put off the debt ceiling Doomsday until
mid-February. Then we can have this play again, where the
Republicans hold a gun to the country's head and demand cuts in
entitlements (they don't dare say Social Security and Medicare, but
that's what they're after) and the Democrats buckle. Been there,
done that. How about this: No deal unless the extortion ends
permanently.

Averages:
About 2,500 people have been killed by the
US drone campaign to generate more terrorists. Over half were
civilians. The other half were al-Qaeda leaders. Really, read the
reports.

Quoted:
This fight is in danger of becoming a cliffhanger, yet it is also
planned to set the stage for the big deficit-cutting deal which the
Democrats and traditional Republicans
intend to cut social safety nets,
most importantly, Social Security and Medicare. ...trying
to reduce government spending [now] is not a good idea (we aren’t
even close to the conditions where it might be warranted),
...projected Medicare cost increases, which are the lynchpin for the
debt scaremongering, are
considerably overstated ...cutting
deficits now will worsen, rather than improve, the government debt to
GDP ratio." Parts
Is Parts:
Without being too picky, wouldn't you expect that when the auto shop
bills you for a new alternator they actually put in a new alternator?
Okay, but if you've asked Boeing to repair your helicopter, ask 'em
for the old parts back. Seems they billed the Army for new parts but
"primarily installed used parts." Gotta make a buck where
you can, it's the American way. Plain
Pain:
Goldman Sachs says that the first two weeks of the government
shutdown has cut 4Q GDP from 2.5% to 2.0%. They used the world
"only". Briar
Patch:
While the people's elected representatives are struggling to bring
debt under control, the people are piling up record amount of debt at
home. Consumer credit is up 22% over the last three years (now at
$3.04 trillion). Total household debt is $13 trillion, not that
short of Uncle Sam's $16 trillion. Blackmailer
Bragging:
Paul Ryan (Serious PersonTM
-WI) is bragging that House Republicans had demanded a one-year delay
in the ACA individual mandate in exchange for putting off national
default for six weeks. Then,
for another six week delay, Social Security would have to be
privatized. Then, just before Christmas, food stamps and WIC would
be cut...
And so on. Talking
Point:
About half of all recent college graduates are working jobs that do
not require a college degree - and won't pay them enough money to pay
back their student loans. Tell me about the housing recovery...

Monday, October 14, 2013

Which part of democracy
do Republicans not understand? They lost. Obama won. They should
stop pretending that the last five years never happened.

The
Story So Far:
No deal. No
way to reach a deal. And there is no graceful way for the
Republicans to back down, so
they won't. That's why they've started the bullshit story that
the debt ceiling is no biggie, that it is a “good
thing” that will force us as a country to live within our
income. Which just goes to show how little the Republican right
understands of the government's role in the domestic economy and how
deadly balancing the budget will be for the country. If the
government cuts spending to match taxes, the economy will slow, and
as the economy slows, tax income will slow so the government will
have to cut spending more and taxes will fall more and so on. When do
you figure the
revolt will start? When food stamps are done away with, when
Medicare and Medicaid no longer exist? Or when the Social Security
checks stop coming?

Over,
Over There:
China's exports fell slightly in September while imports rose by
7.4%, as global demand tapers off. The US can tell them how this
movie turns out.

Unclear
on the Concept:
Angered by the closure of national landmarks due to the government
shutdown brought on by Republican hostage taking, a crowd of people
who think they are conservatives rallied against President Barack
Obama and Democrats and not their own dear leaders for the results of
the blackmail tactics they so admire. Eventually their blather was
reduced to calling Obama a Muslim and demanding he “put the Quran
down”, fall to his knees and surrender to God-fearing Christians –
namely themselves. Somehow – maybe it'd be the power of prayer –
the government is supposed to continue to operate without funds.

If
Only:
“Will China’s gambit to undermine the TPP succeed?” Something
needs to happen to kill this thing before Obama
fast tracks it through Congress and we're stuck with corporations
running even more of the world. Plans:
What is it that US troops are going to do (aside from kidnapping,
torture, the occasional murder, reckless deaths of civilians via
drone and such) that will require that they be immune from Afghan
law? And how much was Karzai promised just to get this mooted to the
tribal leaders?

Victimology:
American conservatives have a remarkable hostility to poor people.
Forget trying to cut the SNAP food stamp program and slashing the WIC
program, just
look at the refusal of 26 Republican governors to expand Medicaid
coverage in their states -- depriving millions of poor people of
access to Medicaid health coverage at no or little cost to the
states. Sixty-eight percent of uninsured single mothers live in the
states that rejected the expansion, as do 60 percent of the nation’s
uninsured working poor. Why do these successful white men so despise
the poor that they have no compassion? What are they afraid of?

Pointedly:
“There is a reason we are living under the all-pervading influence
of John Maynard Keynes... Keynes won the argument”

Our Motto

Keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin' ass and celebratin' the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.